In-vitro diagnostics (IVD) allows labs to assist in the diagnosis of disease based on assays performed on patient fluid samples. IVD includes various types of analytical tests and assays related to patient diagnosis and therapy that can be performed by analysis of a sample (e.g., liquid) taken from a patient's body, or abscesses. These assays are typically conducted with automated clinical chemistry analyzers (analyzers) onto which fluid containers, such as tubes or vials, containing patient samples have been loaded. The analyzer extracts a liquid sample from the vial or tube and combines the sample with various reagents in special reaction cuvettes or tubes (referred to generally as reaction vessels). In some conventional systems, a modular approach is used for analyzers. A lab automation system can shuttle samples between one sample processing module (module) and another module. Modules may include one or more stations, including sample handling stations and testing stations (e.g., a unit that can specialize in certain types of assays or can otherwise provide testing services to the larger analyzer), which may include immunoassay (IA) and clinical chemistry (CC) stations and/or pre and post analytical modules. Some traditional IVD automation track systems comprise systems that are designed to transport samples from one fully independent, standalone module to another fully independent, standalone module. This allows different types of tests to be specialized in two different stations or allows two redundant stations to be linked to increase the volume of sample throughput available.
In some conventional systems, individual carrier mechanisms (carriers), such as pucks and racks, and containers (e.g., test tubes) containing fluids, such as patient samples, are automatically shuttled between different stations. Typically, carriers remain on the track, regardless of whether they have a container associated with them. Separate from the track, (e.g., in other parts of the laboratory), containers may be stored in storage devices, such as racks (wired racks), plastic bins, trays, etc. The fluid containers are manually removed or picked from the storage devices and loaded into carriers/pucks, used to transport containers around the track, by an operator. The operator may also use a specially designed device to bring or remove one or a plurality of carriers at the same time. The process is reversed when the containers (tubes) have completed being processed by the instrument. Once processed, the fluid containers may also be manually unloaded from carriers and placed into temporary storage devices so they can be taken away from the system for further processing. This manual unloading and loading of the containers is labor intensive, requiring time and energy from the operator.
Some conventional systems use automated pick and place devices to load and unload the individual containers to and from temporary storage devices in an effort to reduce the time and energy required by manual unloading and loading. The pick and place devices load one or a plurality of test tubes at a time from temporary storage devices located within a storage area where they would have been placed by an operator. These pick and place devices can also unload containers from carriers located on the track and place them into temporary storage devices located within a storage load/unload area, associated with the instrument or LAS. Conventional systems that use automated pick and place devices may, however, be large, complex, and expensive. What is needed is an improved system for loading and/or unloading samples to and from the track.